Commentary Inf X 11

Jehosaphat is the valley in Palestine in which, according to the Old Testament (Joel 3:2), all will be gathered for the Last Judgment (Joel 3:1-21). Cf. also Matthew 25:31-46, where Jesus is described as separating the sheep (oves) from the goats (hedos – 25.33) on that day. Unlike the Hebrew prophet, Matthew makes no explicit reference to the valley of Jehosaphat. Neither passage mentions the resurrection of the body; however, see John 11:24, where Martha says to Jesus that she is confident that her brother Lazarus shall rise again at the resurrection of the last day. See the article 'General Resurrection' in the (on-line) Catholic Encyclopedia for five Hebrew biblical texts that seem clearly to refer to the resurrection of the flesh, outnumbered by some twenty in the New Testament, a half dozen of these in the Gospels and more than twice that number in various of Paul's Epistles.